Click below to see my old archives dating back to August of 2007

The girl behind the blog...

Welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy reading about my busy life with my husband of 30 years and our four sons and daughter-in-law. We are now empty nesters and my blog is helping me through the journey. I love the Lord and I love my family. I also love to decorate and go to thrift stores!

Monday, April 22, 2013

I'm going to take a break for a little while. I'm not sure for how long. Blogging has lost it's luster for me for now. Instead of actually quitting, I have decided to take a little break.

I started this blog in 2007 to help me deal with my empty nest emotions and also, hopefully, to minister to people who come here. That was six years ago and I'm kind of thinking that this phase of my life is over and I'm questioning if I want to continue blogging or not. My blog became so much more than just to talk about empty nest, it turned out to be so much fun when I first started. I really enjoyed meeting other bloggers and having a little community of blogging friends. It also became my on-line journal, as well as creative writing and creative photography outlets. But, even with all of those good things, I do think it's time for me to take a little break.

I have been thinking a lot about maybe changing my blogging style to more just decorating and home tips rather than talking so much about my family. I will be in fervent prayer about it. Thank you for being such faithful readers of my blog, I pray that all of you have a blessed day!

"Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4Hugs, Sharon

Friday, April 19, 2013

My husband wanted to take the boat out on the lake just to run the motor after it's been hibernating all winter long. He wanted to make sure it was running properly before he took it down the river fishing.

He asked me if I'd like to come along and I said, "Sure, that sounds like fun!"

I'm so proud of this man. He certainly knows what he's doing!

Blondie was so excited to go for a boat ride!

It was overcast with a little bit of drizzle, so the lake was pretty empty.

Blondie!

Eric starting up the motor.

The boat got real dirty as it sat in our carport all winter long. After we ran the motor a bit, Eric cleaned the boat from top to bottom when we got back home.

I love this fun outdoor life that my husband introduced to me me!

I trust Captain Eric!

Woot woo!!!!

We got up to 40!

Blondie loved every minute of it!

It started to rain. I'm so glad that this boat has a nice cover!

We weren't out there very long, but we had fun. I can't wait to go out with the kids on a hot sunny day this summer!

"And Jesus got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded." Mark 6:51Hugs, Sharon

Thursday, April 18, 2013

A few weeks ago I told you about the beautiful dishes that my mother-in-law, Alice, gave me and I mentioned that I wanted to use them sometime when they came over for dinner.

Well, this was the night! In my post about these dishes, I shamefully confessed that I was storing these beautiful dishes out in the garage and had forgotten about them. I vowed that I would find a spot inside the house to store them, which I did. When I got the rest of the boxes out of the garage, I happily discovered that she also had given me these beautiful silver chargers and this pretty pink tablecloth. I wanted to surprise her and use all of them for our dinner party.

I took pictures of all of us with Jim and Alice starting with Eric and I.

Cameron and Megan.

Grayson and Rachelle.

Mackenzie and Brittany.

Brittany showed them the ultrasound pictures of their baby!

Jim and Alice are very excited to be great-grandparents!

Alice was very pleased with the dishes!

We had a lovely meal of barbecued pork sirloin, homemade baked beans and cabbage & Top Ramen salad.

I made Jim his favorite cake for his 78th birthday! We had a great night!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

We have been married for over 30 years and if I do say so myself, we have a wonderful marriage. In all our years of marriage, we have always set aside time to go on dates and cultivate our relationship. Sometimes it was hard to get away when we had a house full of busy little boys, but we did find the time. Now that we are empty nesters, we can pretty much go out whenever we want, but I like the fact that we don't do it all the time so that it is still really special and fun for us.

The other night we had one of our fun little dates at the local Mexican restaurant. I appreciate and love my husband so much, he has been with me through thick and thin.

Lately our life has been thick.

We have been stressed because of my parents health and financial situation.

We also both have been very busy at our jobs.

He is a timber faller and self employed and lately the log market has been very good, which we are so very grateful for, but he's been working extra hard.

He has a crew of men that work for him and they have two units going right now. Eric has been having to work almost every Saturday to keep up.

At my job they are implementing a whole new computer system for registering and checking in patients and keeping the patient's electronic charts. I've been going to many training classes every week learning this new system.

On top of all of this, I am realizing that I'm still going through the empty nest transition and trying to figure out my new role.

For years my title was wife and mother and I felt that my life had great purpose. It's been hard navigating this new role and finding my new purpose.

I thought that I had dealt with all of my empty nest issues last fall when our youngest went off to college and I thought I passed with flying colors.

In reality, I believe I dealt with some of it, but then I got so busy with his football season, working, doing some projects around our house and then preparing for the holidays.

When the quiet of January and February came around I started to notice that I'm not so busy with "mom" stuff and wondering what should I be doing with my extra time every evening and on my days off. These moments do pass and I am so very excited about our little grandbaby that's coming in October, but I just wanted you to know that these "empty-nest-who-am-I-now" emotions are an added element to my stressors at this time.

As I said before, we have both been busy and we're going through a lot right now, but I think the biggest stressor lately is the fact that my parents have had strokes and my sisters and I are so concerned about them.

We are praying that they get approval for assistance to help pay for a CNA to come in to their home or for them to go to an assisted living facility so that they will get the proper care that they need. If they do not get approved, my sister might continue to care for our mother and Eric and I have decided to have my father live here if it ends up being necessary. The latter would be our last choice in that our parents would be apart, and after 57 years of marriage, which would be devastating to them. On the other hand, it would be really fun for me to have my father here. The best situation we feel though, would be if they could stay in their home and we could have an aid come in to help them.

My two sisters and our husbands are all trying to help our parents. We love them and are looking out for their best interests.

It is so hard to feel completely responsible for a situation, but having absolutely no control. That's what we've been going through.

We all have a very strong faith and we know that God has some plan for all of this. Meanwhile, this situation is pretty much all I can think about and talk about. My stomach is in knots.

We never know what life will bring us, but we know that the Lord is always with us. I'm so thankful for my rock of a husband. I'm so thankful that we can go out on dates and have a fun, romantic night but it's also so nice to be with my loving, supportive, wise, sensible, calm husband to talk things out. I am so very blessed with him.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28